1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a confinement and feeding stall for livestock such as horses, cows and the like that is wide enough so that an animal can stand comfortably but not turn around and narrow enough to prevent other animals from crowding into an occupied stall. The animal can freely enter without being herded and can freely back out. The front of each stall opens outwardly to allow the animal to be brought straight through the stall thus allowing easy access for further handling. When a plurality of stalls are linked together, the livestock will separate themselves into the individual stalls without being forced.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
It is sometimes desirable to feed different rations to different animals. With a herd this is difficult to accomplish without catching and separately penning them. What is needed is a passive system wherein the animals separate themselves into individual stalls such that different rations can be fed. The stall should permit the animals to freely enter and when done to freely back out. Other times, it is desirable to hold the livestock in separate stalls while individual animals are taken straight through for handling, grooming, riding, etc. Clearly the confinement and feeding experience must be pleasant for the animals to be voluntarily repeated and for it to remain a passive system.
No prior art stall provides a passive confinement and feeding system as discussed above. Some previously designed stalls catch or hold the livestock to immobilize them. Other systems require the livestock to be herded or driven into the apparatus. Some require that the animal be already restrained before it is led into the stall. Others are designed to handle only one animal at a time. Representative examples of such stalls are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,205,951, 6,070,555, 6,026,766, 5,634,438, 5,392,731, 5,309,869, 5,289,798, 4,977,856, 4,470,372, 4,432,305, 4,201,158, 4,171,684, 2,659,344, 2,023,774 and 1,209,688.